The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus comprising a plurality of devices and a method for controlling the supply of power to the electronic apparatus, as well as a recording apparatus and a method for controlling the supply of power to the recording apparatus.
Conventionally, there have been some methods for supplying power to an electronic apparatus. In one of the methods, a power switch is used to shut off the power to the input of the power supply circuit of the apparatus, thereby shutting off the supply of the power to the whole apparatus. In another method, even when the power switch is turned off, supply of the power is kept to part of the apparatus.
In detail, in some of such electronic apparatuses as TV sets, computer devices or the like, their circuits are partially kept applied with power even when the power switch is off as long as its AC plug is connected to an AC outlet. In such an apparatus, for example, a remote controlling device which uses an infrared beam, or the like, can be used to turn on/off the power supply thereof.
Hereunder, a configuration of a power supply circuit for a conventional electronic apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 15 through 22.
In FIGS. 15 through 22, reference number 101 denotes an AC plug, reference number 102 denotes a main power switch, reference number 103 denotes a power supply circuit, reference numbers 104 and 105 denote control circuits dedicated to the operation of the apparatus. Reference number 106 denotes a sub-power switch, reference number 107 denotes an operation panel, and reference number 108 denotes an infrared beam remote controlling device. Reference number 109 denotes an infrared beam signal input device and reference number 110 denotes a battery.
FIG. 15 is a block diagram for a configuration of such an electronic apparatus which has no power switch.
The AC plug 101 is connected to an AC outlet, thereby supplying a commercial power to the power supply circuit 103. The power is then supplied from the power supply circuit 103 to the control circuit 104 dedicated to the apparatus, which is thus enabled for an operation. The apparatus power is turned on/off by connecting/disconnecting the AC plug 101 to/from the AC outlet. Although such power on/off controlling is troublesome, the configuration can save both space and cost of the apparatus since it includes no power switch.
FIG. 16 is a block diagram for another configuration of the apparatus shown in FIG. 15, in which a power switch 102 is added newly.
The power switch 102 is disposed between the AC plug 101 and the power supply circuit 103, and thereby the supply of the power to the power supply circuit 103 can be shut off. In this case, the power switch 102 is turned on to supply the power to the whole apparatus. Compared with the configuration shown in FIG. 15, this configuration makes it easier to turn on/off the power to the apparatus.
FIG. 17 is further another block diagram for the power supply configuration of the electronic apparatus shown in FIG. 16, in which a sub-power switch 106 is also added in addition to the main power switch 102.
In the power supply configuration shown in FIG. 17, the control circuit 104 shown in FIG. 16 is divided into two control circuits 104 and 105. In one control circuit 104, no power switch is disposed between the control circuit 104 and the power supply circuit 103 and the control circuit 104 is kept supplied with a power from the power supply circuit 103. In the other control circuit 105, a sub-power switch 106 is disposed between the control circuit 105 and the power supply circuit 103, so that the power to the control circuit 105 can be shut off. Such a type of the control circuit 104 to which a power is kept supplied is materialized as, for example, a preheating circuit or the like. In such a preheating circuit 104, the main power switch 102 is turned on to actuate the control circuit 104, thereby starting preheating. After that, the sub-power switch 106 is turned on to supply the power to the whole apparatus so as to start the operation quickly.
FIG. 18 is another block diagram for the power supply configuration shown in FIG. 17. Although no power supply controlling is made between the two control circuits 104 and 105 in FIG. 17, the supply of the power from one control circuit 104 shown in FIG. 20 to the other control circuit 105 is controlled in this case. A power is kept supplied to the control circuit 104 shown in FIG. 20.
In this configuration, the control circuit 104 to which a power is supplied non stop is provided with a control signal input/output circuit used to decide whether to shut off the power to the other control circuit 105. The control signal input/output circuit is connected to the operation switch 106 provided on the operation panel 107. An operator turns on/off this operation switch 106 to supply the power or stop the supply of the power to the other control circuit 105. Consequently, the power supply wiring can be made more freely, as well as whether to provide a power switch to the object apparatus can be selected more freely. This is an advantage of this power supply configuration.
FIG. 19 is a block diagram for another power supply configuration in which the switch 106 of the control signal input circuit shown in FIG. 18 is replaced with an infrared beam signal input circuit.
In this case, an infrared beam signal is output from the infrared beam remote controlling device 108 provided outside the electronic apparatus, thereby transmitting a power on/off signal, which is then received at the infrared beam input circuit 109 provided to the electronic apparatus body and used to start/stop the supply of the power to the other control circuit 105. This configuration is realized by controlling the supply of the power shown in FIG. 18 with the input of a signal.
FIG. 20 is a block diagram for another power supply configuration shown in FIG. 18, from which the main power switch 102 is removed.
An object of this power supply configuration is to save both cost and space of the object apparatus, as well as to keep operating one control circuit 104.
FIG. 21 is another block diagram for the power supply configuration shown in FIG. 19. This power supply configuration shown in FIG. 21 is not provided with any power switch. It stops the operation of the other control circuit 105 so as to save the power consumption by transmitting a stop signal to the control circuit 105 from the control circuit 104 to which a power is kept supplied.
In this configuration, the operation of the control circuit 105 is stopped with the use of a stop signal transmitted, for example, after the operation of the apparatus is ended.
FIG. 22 is another block diagram of the power supply configuration shown in FIG. 16. In this power supply configuration shown in FIG. 22, the AC input circuit shown in FIG. 16 is replaced with a battery.
In this case, a power switch 102 is disposed between the battery 110 and the power supply circuit 103. The power switch 102 is turned off when the apparatus is not used, thereby saving the power consumption of the battery 110. In the same way, the AC input circuit may be replaced with a battery even in the power supply configurations shown in FIGS. 17 through 21.
As described above, there have been proposed various power supply configurations so far. In the conventional electronic apparatus, however, only part of the circuit in the electronic apparatus is operated to save the power consumption of the object apparatus.
If a power is kept supplied to an apparatus and part of the apparatus while the AC plug is just connected to an AC outlet such way, the power consumption becomes a problem. Concretely, almost all persons will not disconnect the AC plug from the AC outlet each time the electronic apparatus such as a TV set, a video tape recorder, a computer device or the like is not used. It most cases, those units will be kept connected to their AC outlets. In recent years, however, a marked tendency is seen to reduce unnecessary power consumptions of those electronic devices with the increasing sensitivity of environmental and ecological problems.
Under such circumstances, therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus and a recording apparatus which can save more power and a method for controlling the supply of the power to both of them when in the standby state.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus for which the supply of power is controlled only by supplying the power to a control unit in the standby state with the use of a control program transferred to a RAM in the control unit from a memory to which the power supply can be shut off so as to be executed in the standby state, and a method for controlling the supply of the power to the apparatus.
It is further another object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus which can save power consumption and use the standby time effectively by executing a processing which should be executed in the steady-state in the standby state and a method for controlling the supply of the power to the apparatus.
It is further another object of the present invention to provide an electronic apparatus which can save more power consumption in the standby state by lowering the frequency of a clock signal supplied to a control unit in the standby state, and a method for controlling the supply of power to the apparatus.
To attain the above objects, the electronic apparatus of the present invention comprises control unit provided with at least a CPU, a RAM, and an I/O port, and a memory for storing a control program executed by the CPU. And, the apparatus further comprises;
a power supply unit for supplying power to each device therein;
a switching circuit for turning on/off the power supplied to the devices other than the control unit from the power supply unit;
transferring means for transferring the control program stored in the memory to the RAM according to a power-off direction; and
power-off controlling means for controlling the switching circuit so as to turn off the power supply to devices other than the control unit after the control program is transferred to the RAM by the transferring means;
wherein the CPU executes the control program stored in the RAM while the power supply to the control unit is maintained after the power-off controlling means turns off the power supply to devices other than the control unit.
Furthermore, to attain the above objects, the method for controlling the power supply to the electronic apparatus of the present invention comprises the following steps. Concretely, the power supply controlling method, which is used for the electronic apparatus comprising a control unit provided with at least a CPU, a RAM, I/O ports, and a memory for storing a control program executed by the CPU, further comprises;
a transferring step of transferring the control program stored in the memory to the RAM according to a power-off direction;
a step of turning off the power supplied to devices other than the control unit from a power supply unit for supplying power to each device in the electronic apparatus after the control program is transferred to the RAM by the transferring step; and
a step of executing the control program stored in the RAM with the CPU while the power supply to the control unit is maintained after the power supply except for the control unit is turned off.
Furthermore, to attain the above objects, the electronic apparatus of the present invention comprises a plurality of devices including;
controlling means for controlling the operations of a plurality of the devices;
supplying means for supplying a clock for operating a plurality of the devices;
directing means for directing the supplying means to start its operation; and
power supply controlling means for controlling power supply to devices other than a device required for controlling the controlling means.
To attain the above objects, the method for controlling power supply to the electronic apparatus of the present invention comprises a plurality of steps including;
a supplying step of supplying a clock for operating a plurality of the devices;
a plurality of directing steps for directing the supplying process to start its operation respectively; and
a power supply controlling step of controlling power supply to devices except for a device required by the control unit for controlling the operations of a plurality of the devices.
Furthermore, to attain the above objects, the recording apparatus of the present invention, which is used for recording images according to recorded data, comprises;
controlling means for controlling the operation of each of a plurality of devices thereof;
supplying means for supplying a clock for operating a plurality of the devices;
a plurality of directing means for directing the supplying means to start its operation respectively;
power supply controlling means for controlling the power supply to devices except for a device necessary for controlling the controlling means; and
recording means for recording images according to the recorded data.
Furthermore, to attain the above objects, the method for controlling power supply to the recording apparatus of the present invention, which reduces the power consumption of the recording apparatus for recording images according to recorded data, comprises;
a supplying step of supplying a clock for operating a plurality of the devices;
a plurality of directing steps for directing the supplying step to start its operation respectively;
a power supply controlling step of controlling the power supply to devices except for a device required by the control unit for controlling the operations of a plurality of the devices of the recording apparatus; and
a recording process for recording images according to the recorded data.